5 Time Management Tips

The recent years have put on display the undeniable fact that time is for everyone the most valuable resource available. Behind every happy and rewarding life there is a strong management of time. This article will try to pinpoint some steps for accessing a shortcut towards a better management of time.

1. Planning and meditation are never a waste of time

We all love action and consider it the number one solution for stretching our available time to its maximum. But rushing in to get things done without thinking too much about the implications which are not yet at the horizon will result in blockages and ultimately frustration and waste of time. Why not “waste” that time at the beginning, trying to visualize your road ahead and all the necessary actions. Investing time to develop a plan and thinking about possible outcomes will not scare action away, but just delay it to a moment you are really ready.

2. Know your time, but don’t become obsessed with it

Many people waste time because they do not have the proper tools to track its unfolding. And I am not talking here just about clocks. Time organizers can come in all shapes and sizes, from paper notebooks to smartphone apps. Carefully observing which activities consume most of your time can lead to improvements. Avoid going the other way around and falling in the trap of putting your entire day at microscope. Becoming obsessed in tracking time can actually strip the observed time from other more fertile endeavors.

So limit yourself to only one clock in the office and a wrist watch. You don’t have to see seconds passing from any direction you look. Remember that time as we know it is just a convention used by people to take in account cyclic astronomical events.

3. Delegate

We all know the type of person which likes to do all by himself / herself. Time has no real meaning for someone always connected to both the small details and the big picture. People wanting to clear their agenda for the real important things comparable to their caliber should learn to delegate smaller and easier task to those being part of the same team. Delegation is done when enough trust has built up between individuals and therefore it is a process that requires time on its own terms. Remember that all successful people you and I know had learn at some point they can focus better on what really is important if they are surrounded by extra helping hands.

4. The art of disconnecting

I will be honest, this is the most disturbing tip you probably heard in a while. In the age of instant messaging, taking more than a few seconds to respond to an e-mail or not answering your phone might be considered something rude. Well, it’s not. We are not robots and staying plug in all the time can drain important resources from us, without returning something valuable instead. If you have something really crucial to get done by the end of the day, checking your e-mail from minute to minute and answering to courtesy phone calls won’t help. Getting offline should not be seen as a way of skipping your social and professional duties, but more like a “do not disturb” sign, indicating you want to be 100% focused on the task in hand and that you are tired of pointless multitask.

5. Rest is never the enemy of time

You probably know the drill. You have something really important to do and you are already counting many hours since you started. The deadline is near and you feel like things will never reach an end. In this scenario, the frenzy of work will apparently leave no room for rest. Working with the same yield for hours and hours is not a realistic expectation, even for pure-blood workaholics. Rest is a crucial part of every activity and it should never be seen as a waste of your time. Stopping the engines for a little more than 10 minutes might give you the extra boost needed to stay on schedule with all of your “to do’s”.